The following list includes import elements known to degrade system performance. This list can be used to troubleshoot existing imports and can also be reviewed prior to creating new imports to prevent performance problems.
For general information on imports, see the Data Exchange documentation here.
Avoid Typical Import Errors
The following errors are typical for imports:
- Invalid attribute values - These errors can be caused by the attribute setup parameter in the import not matching the parameter in the system. For example, the attribute's validation type, mask, minimum and maximum values, maximum length, LOV, the object's own object type, and so on.
- Object type validity - Even if you load attribute values for an object, not all values will be automatically available in STEP. Attributes must be made valid for an object before the values can be accessed via references. STEP will always load attribute values if the object’s type is valid for the attribute, and the attribute values meet the validity criteria. But, the attribute itself must be a valid attribute for that object, that is, linked somewhere in the object hierarchy or classification hierarchy where the object resides.
- Inaccurate STEPXML statements - Performance degrades when the STEPXML import file has the wrong case for the property 'UserTypeID' (such as 'UserTypeId'). If the STEPXML import file has no Parent IDs for the products, then new products are not imported. To skip importing new products, add the reject new product tag in the file header (RejectNewProducts="true") to avoid the missing Parent ID error.
Background Process (BGP) progress and the number of errors and warnings are shown on the Background Processes tab under the Execution Report flipper as follows:
- For manual imports using Import Manager - on the BG Processes tab under the 'Import Manager Pipeline' node
- For IIEPs - on the Background Processes tab click the BGP link to display information for this particular background process. In both cases, on the Background Processes tab, open the Execution Report flipper to are also displayed as shown below.
For a list of common errors, see the Import Error Messages topic (here) and the Import Error Message Examples topic (here) in the Data Exchange documentation.
Avoid Missing Reference Targets
Ensure that import files do not have reference nodes that are missing in the file (missing reference targets).
If the reference target does not exist in the import file, then the target does not exist at the time of import. The importer skips the product and triggers a second import pass after the initial completion (testing to see if the target exists later in the same file). If the reference target does not exist in the system at the time of the second import pass, the background process logs an error due to a missing reference target. A second import pass caused by missing targets bears a heavy performance impact.
This type of error illustrates the importance of the sequence of nodes in the import file. See also the Avoid Forward Declarations section below.
Avoid Forward Declarations
The structure of the import file can be optimized for import performance by ensuring that referenced nodes are not being created in the file after they are needed (forward declaration).
If the reference target exists later in the same import file, then the target does not exist at the time of import. The importer skips the product and triggers a second import pass after the initial completion. The reference target will exist in the system at the time of the second import pass, which will allow the import to succeed.
A second import pass caused by missing targets bears a heavy performance impact. This illustrates the importance of the sequence of the nodes in the import file. See also the Avoid Missing Reference Targets section above.
Avoid Multiple Updates of Same Object
The structure of the import file can be optimized for maximum import performance by ensuring that the same product or entity is not updated several times in a single file or in multiple files.
- When creating import files, structure the files by modified nodes, not by attribute. It is faster to update a single node with 10 attributes once, than to update each attribute individually.
- Update the same node with all relevant information in one file, rather than splitting it over multiple files or imports. Thus, understand the data patterns of busy endpoints and attempt to structure import files so that any given product or entity appears in the fewest number of import files as possible.
If a given product or entity is distributed across several import files instead of consolidated into one, this will cause duplicate execution of business rules, approvals and cache load. It also has the potential to dramatically increase revision history, which is a performance detriment of its own.
Updating the same product or entity at the same time across multiple imports can result in Optimistic Lock failures.
Avoid Unnecessary Business Rules on Import
Using business rules on imports is a powerful tool, but like all powerful tools comes with some risks. Complex JavaScript business actions add execution time to imports.
Review the following items to ensure business rules are used efficiently:
- Are automated actions required on import? The fewer automated actions on import, the faster the import performs.
- Does the business process require actions on import? When possible, design your solution so imports can run free of any business actions. An event processor can be used to perform business actions that are not necessary to be run on import.
- Are the business rules running on import via workflows or approvals required? While extremely useful, all of these options impact performance.
Once it is determined that a business rule is required, verify that there are no unnecessary business actions being performed, such as:
- Are there duplicate executions? For example, an approval triggered in a global business rule as well as in a local state transition rule.
- Are business rules reading or updating objects other than the one being imported (reference sources or targets, parents, children, etc.)? This reduces performance because only the imported product is likely to be resident in cache at the time. Business rules that iterate through children of the imported product are particularly common but very expensive performance-wise.
- Do the business conditions allow a logical exception or lock contention? Verify business rule execution for the purpose of automation or transformation is secondary and is fail tolerant. This means that the criticality of a rule failure is far less than that of the import operation itself. In the event of an exception, rules can be fixed and executed again, whereas import records that are skipped can be difficult to rectify on a busy system.
For more information, see the Business Rule Recommendations topic here.
Avoid Optimistic Locking in Business Rules on Import
If business rules on import are determined to be required, minimize the risk of optimistic locking caused by business actions on import:
- Business actions that execute on tree structures or commonly referenced objects may contribute to optimistic locking or even deadlock failures.
- Any business action that triggers an approval inside of a try / catch block can cause an optimistic lock (as well as subsequent retries and eventual failure) if an approval condition failure is caught and the original exception is not re-thrown.
- Any action that throws an error with the word 'exception' in the error message results in the importer functioning as if an optimistic lock occurred, resulting in retries and eventual failure.
For more information, see the Business Rule Recommendations topic (here) and the Optimistic and Pessimistic Locking Recommendations topic (here).
Avoid Complex Privileges on Import
When importing, all privileges are checked for each piece of information imported, even when the data is not imported. For example, when performing a hierarchy check (e.g., is the product below a certain root node), performance can be impacted significantly for large imports.
To avoid excessive privilege-checking and improve performance dramatically, the import user should have as broad and as few privileges as possible. For IIEPs, this applies only to the user configured on the endpoint.